You’ve seen her as a troubled prodigy in The Queen’s Gambit, a cunning escort in The Menu, and the fierce warrior lead Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Now, Anya Taylor-Joy’s latest transfiguration sees her fronting and executive producing Lucky, Apple TV’s newest original series.
Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, Lucky follows Luciana ‘Lucky’ Armstrong as she tries to outrun her past. With a con artist as a father, a life of crime is all Lucky knows. It follows her into marriage with Drew Starkey’s Cary, who is equally drawn to chaos, with a mafia boss for a mother. His mother, Priscilla, is hellbent on having Lucky within her grasp after the couple successfully colludes in pulling off a multi-million dollar heist on her mob.
All goes sideways after a betrayal, and Lucky finds herself alone with the FBI and mafia mother Priscilla hot on her heels. What follows is a grueling journey of survival on the run, as Lucky is forced to embrace her dark side once more in a desperate bid to escape her unfortunate fate. Amidst thrilling car chases, bloody gun fights and cruel twists at every corner, the feisty lead learns what it means to trust, and the unforgiving cost of doing so.
Ahead of its release, leads Anya Taylor-Joy and Drew Starkey share with Vogue Singapore on the show’s complex family ties, preparation for their roles and the role of costumes in Lucky.
Your characters in this show are quite different from your recent projects. What was it like preparing for your roles as Lucky and Cary?
Drew Starkey: Something that I always look for is variation and difference. We had a lot of really great early conversations, and you [Anya] kind of brought me into this and pitched it to me really well and I was just excited to to be on it with such a great team. And then, of course, you have a great bit of source material to work off of which is always a gift and a lot of conversations with our directors and show runners, and then showing up on the day and letting it fly, it was a great bit of preparation.
Anya Taylor-Joy: I think being a part of the producing team and being in so early on all of the different decisions that I’ve always wanted to be a part of meant that I really got to shape the world that this character was going to inhabit. What surprised me whilst we were filming was the very interesting challenge of playing somebody who you want the audience to invest in, while she’s continuously playing somebody else. How much do you play the truth of the con versus the truth of her in the moment? What is the tight wire that you’re walking in order to be able to have people care enough about this person that they’re going to follow her through to the end, but also show off that she’s really good at the thing that she does, and almost trick them in the moment too. So that was something that I was dealing with day to day.
How important is a costume in helping you find a character, and was there any particular item of Lucky’s outfits or accessories that helped you find her?
ATJ: Paramount. I discovered my love for fashion through costume for characters. I thought it was so magical. How all of a sudden you could put on a piece of clothing and absolutely understand something about a person, or just completely transfigure yourself into somebody else. The challenge for Lucky, which I was very excited by, is how do you still have a point of view when technically most of the time you’re operating on found clothing? Because this is a series that takes place cross country. We were trying to find things that made sense for the environment, but still told you something about who Lucky was, or who she was code switching to be in that moment. I’m very proud of the white dress [in episode 5], because I thought it was inherently very cinematic, but I also love the Caesars jacket, it was really good.
Your characters’ relationships with their parents are both quite complicated. What are your perspectives on these relationships?
DS: For me, starting out and working on this, there was a big question about destiny and fate. I think we’re all kind of born into this idea that we’re meant to go down a certain road, and I think, for Cary especially, he’s constantly at a flux and confrontation with his own future, and what’s the road kind of laid out in front of him. And I think he finds someone who has had incredibly similar life experiences in two totally different worlds and they’re able to kind of shape their own fate, I think. There’s some hope in that, and hope within each other for the two of them.
ATJ: Freud would probably have a lot to say about these two’s relationships. You could argue that, in a way, they are both dating a vision of their parents, but also desperately trying to move away from that and trying to not play out those roles again. All I will say is—from a producer standpoint—when it comes to the two men in our show, Drew and Tim, we knew that we needed people that were highly charismatic and that you would care about, even when they were doing things that were seen to be atrocious, and I think we got really lucky with our guys.
In Lucky, the both of you play interesting, complex characters. What surprised you the most about each other on set?
DS: No surprises. She’s the most lovely person I’ve ever met in my entire life. She’s incredible to work with. I think it always starts with a sense of professionalism, and I have the most professional person right next to me, and so it made the job very easy, and that just opens up doors and we just got a chance to have fun…
ATJ: …and play. I will say I was not surprised because I fought very hard for Drew to be in this show. I knew he was our Cary, and I think what you bring to it—which is so beautiful—is you have this ability to be very vulnerable whilst wrapped in a lot of strength, and this character needed to be somebody that you would miss as the audience, and then also want to hear out after he does something which is technically unforgivable, and I think Drew has that. I remember there’s a fight sequence that we have that we shot over multiple days, and there were moments where I was like, “why do I feel for you in this moment in time? You did a bad thing,” and that’s exactly what we needed from our actor who was playing Cary. And then I also got a friend, which was really nice.
Stream Lucky on Apple TV here.
